Color

Real Name: Erik Del Rio

Hater: What style do you specialize in?
Color: I wouldn’t say that I specialize in anything particularly. I like to think of myself as a jack-of-all-trades. Most artists nowadays have a tendency to limit themselves to either traditional Japanese or Americana. I like to be able to tackle a broader spectrum. I can do a black and grey portrait, then easily turn around and complete a traditional or Japanese piece without missing a beat. I don’t really like to restrict myself to one style because if you focus entirely on one thing, you will miss out on gettin’ that paper from the guy who wants something different. I can sit at a shop and do flash all day long! [..]

The 1940’s renovated house at 1416 Westheimer turned vintage clothing store, turned almost bakery is now a tattoo shop but you wouldn’t know that upon first entering. There’s not one piece of flash on the walls. Instead, the Jack the Ripper themed front parlor is devoid of tattoo kitsch and the walls are used for displaying the work of rotating local artists. The actual tattooing takes place intimately in the back. “We wanted something different than just a flash shop. We strive to give each client their own original piece. We have bookcases full of art books, so our clients aren’t coming looking at tattoo designs, they are coming in looking at pictures of art and getting inspired,” says Alex Cetina. Cetina, alongside Christina Sparrow and Christopher Malice are the three talented artists that make up the Gaslight Gallery –also home to veteran tattooers Mark Anthony, Kat Adlerz and piercer Paul Tohill. [..]

If you were Black in Houston before 1970 and wanted a tattoo, you had to either let your homeboy down the street play etch-a-sketch on your skin, do a bid in prison or enlist in the military.

As I thought over the restrictive and not very hygienic ways of how to attain a tattoo back in the day, I wondered where in the hell my uncle got his tattoos. I called my uncle, a man over the age of 50 from Trinity Gardens in Houston, Texas, and who still refers to himself as the “playa from the Himalayas,” and asked him where he and his friends used to go to get their tattoos. He paused a moment to remember and responded, “It’s a shop off 45, right after Tidwell, past the Skyline apartments. Go there and they’ll hook you up.”
My uncle couldn’t remember the name of the tattoo shop but the shop he was referring to, the shop where he and his partners were able to go and for the first time receive a professional tattoo, was Dago’s Tattoo Parlor. [..]

Lust . Murder. Intrigue.

Cliff Jamel (20) and Leo Kahey (22) are waiting patiently with me for the photographer to meet up with us at the shoot location. The young entrepreneurs, who launched their street wear clothing line last year and are releasing a new collection of outer wear this coming fall, are in a jovial mood despite the delay and Leo shows me his fresh tattoo of a kanji symbol that represents Lust, “I’m working on a LMI sleeve for right now, but I have to pace myself. Every tattoo has to have a meaning you know.” The childhood friends are fresh faced, young and ambitious, and their positive energy is making me exhausted. [..]

By Monique Crump

Within the city of Houston, there are many options to where you can experience another culture’s nightlife without a passport or a latex gloved cavity search courtesy of the TSA. The thought of being immersed in Jamaican nightlife at 3 a.m. had never entered my mind. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be able to write about it hadn’t I been driving home early one morning from a bar. [..]